I have been very pleased with my 21.1, 22 mk 2 and MR800 with a Sim Nova cdp and Spendor 3/5. Real music, everyday, every time I listen. Because of my lousy power, the system really needed the Music Ring to perform.

I had a stereo buddy come over this Christmas season. He has a nice system (Nagra-ML Prodigy) with Foundation and Equitech balanced power. He has been adding Shunyata products to his system (Diamondback, Hydra) and said that the improvements were not trivial and worth pursuing.

I was able to get a Taipan power cord on demo. I think there may be some benefits but an overwhelming drawback to using this Shunyata cord with the Music Ring. I used the cord on the input to the MR800 and noticed some very good changes: very black background, enhanced location, better definition of everything. I could pick out single voices in an opera chorus or identify each member of a trio. Really enhanced signal to noise. But also I heard a very harsh zing at the top. It is as if all the frequencies are much better defined (perhaps less smeared) but the top end was harsh. Perhaps not as much distorted as something bad added.

So after posting Gilbert and Kevin, I got a BC62 and BC68 yesterday. I tried the BC62 first last night and was very pleased immediately. I put on a well recorded female singer (Canadian chanteuse Trudy Desmond) and the improvement was definite in the clarity and the reduction in an already low background. Then I put on an opera cd and it was riveting, I had to listen to the whole cd. There was a definite increase in coherence. Bass strings had a real sense of complexity while bowed and the voices just appeared out of the very black background. This is good!

Then I put in the BC68. Very interesting. At the beginning, the top end was very "sophisticated" sounding. More ?high-end? than I am used to. The bass was a bit slow, but not enough to warrant dumping the idea. However, after about an hour of continuous playing, the system got very shrill, and unlistenable. Again, I can?t tell if there was distortion or just added HF trash.

There was no effect of the BC68 or the Shunyata on the CD player. Suggested that the Sim player might be quite well designed.

So the BC 62 did not alter the basics of the system like the Shunyata, but it did enhance its performance without sonic damage. It?s a keeper for me.